Browsing by Author "Miranda, Juan Pablo"

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    From Belief in Conspiracy Theories to Trust in Others: Which Factors Influence Exposure, Believing and Sharing Fake News
    (SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG, 2019) Halpern, Daniel; Valenzuela, Sebastián; Katz, James; Miranda, Juan Pablo; Meiselwitz, G
    Drawing on social-psychological and political research, we offer a theoretical model that explains how people become exposed to fake news, come to believe in them and then share them with their contacts. Using two waves of a nationally representative sample of Chileans with internet access, we pinpoint the relevant causal factors. Analysis of the panel data indicate that three groups of variables largely explain these phenomena: (1) Personal and psychological factors such as belief in conspiracy theories, trust in others, education and gender; (2) Frequency and specific uses of social media; and (3) Political views and online activism. Importantly, personal and political-psychological factors are more relevant in explaining this behavior than specific uses of social media.
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    The Paradox of Participation Versus Misinformation: Social Media, Political Engagement, and the Spread of Misinformation
    (2019) Valenzuela Leighton, Sebastián Andrés; Halpern, Daniel; Katz, James E.; Miranda, Juan Pablo
    The mechanisms by which users of platforms such as Facebookand Twitter spread misinformation are not well understood. In thisstudy, we argue that the effects of informational uses of socialmedia on political participation are inextricable from its effects onmisinformation sharing. That is, political engagement is both amajor consequence of using social media for news as well as akey antecedent of sharing misinformation. We test our expecta-tions via a two-wave panel survey of online media users in Chile, acountry experiencing information disorders comparable to those ofthe global North. Analyses of the proposed and alternative causalmodels with two types of structural equation specifications (fixedeffects and autoregressive) support our theoretical model. Weclose with a discussion on how changes in the way people engagewith news and politics – brought about by social media – haveproduced a new dilemma: how to sustain a citizenry that is enthu-siastically politically active, yet not spreading misinformation?